


Fortune Teller

by ApoplecticAtPeace



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur is soft for Merlin, Arthur loves merlin, But he won't tell him that, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23294167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApoplecticAtPeace/pseuds/ApoplecticAtPeace
Summary: On a road in the middle of nowhere, the King and his manservant find a fortune teller. She tells Arthur fantastical things about his future...But maybe that future doesn't sound so bad.
Relationships: (IMPLIED), Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin/Arthur Pendragon
Comments: 8
Kudos: 88





	Fortune Teller

Merlin hadn’t wanted to stop. In fact, he had been vehemently against it. Perhaps that was what had made Arthur stop in the end, just to spite Merlin and his whinging.

“Penny for your fortunes?” the old woman had said, standing outside her horseless caravan by the side of the road.

Arthur had paused. “Do I know you?”

“Arthur, let’s go.”

She had smiled in a way that was all too familiar to Arthur for some reason. “No. But I know you, King of Camelot.”

Arthur glanced back at Merlin, obviously impressed. They were travelling through Cenred’s lands, and as such were wearing nothing that could identify them as citizens of Camelot, much less as the King and his manservant.

“No,” Merlin said, recognising the expression that Arthur was looking at him with. “No. No, no, no, no, we are not stopping, you have no idea who she is!” Arthur looked back at the woman. He was wearing the expression that meant he was considering it doing something, and knew it would anger Merlin.

Swinging one leg over the side of his horse, Arthur dismounted and walked towards the woman. “A fortune-teller, you say?”

Merlin scrambled off his own horse and grabbed Arthur’s arm, pulling him to the side.

“She’s just a phoney, a hoax,” Merlin whispered loudly, “we had tons in our village, I know her type now let’s _go_.”

“No.”

“No?”

“I’d like to see what she has to say, actually,” Arthur said stubbornly, feeling smug at the annoyed look on his manservant’s face.

“She’s just guessing.”

“Guessing that some random person on the side of the road in Cenred’s kingdom is the King of Camelot?”

“You’re not exactly inconspicuous,” Merlin pointed out. “Or she could be a witch. You haven’t thought of that one, have you? Another witch, enchanting you and leaving you for dead.”

Arthur looked over Merlin’s shoulder at the woman. Something about her eyes... There was something he recognised, trusted. Something he felt like he saw every day but never quite clocked.

“Merlin, you’re overreacting; it’s just some old woman, stop being so rude.”

Arthur shoved Merlin out of the way and passed a coin or two to the woman, who drew back the curtain on her caravan for Arthur to enter. He did so without a second thought.

Merlin sighed angrily and made to follow him, only to be stopped by the woman’s bony hand.

“One at a time.”

Arthur poked his head out from the curtain. “Merlin, go stand over there and look after the horses,” he said, pointing at the far side of the road.

Merlin gritted his teeth. “Yes, _sire_.”

Arthur shook his head the way an adult would shake their head at a petulant child and retreated back inside.

Muttering curses, Merlin grabbed the reins and tied the horses to a fence post on the far side of the road, settling himself down on the grass next to them as he did so.

“Stupid, idiotic git,” he muttered. “Not like that woman will tell him anything. Nothing importing anyway.”

A minute stretched into ten minutes, stretched into twenty, and then thirty, and still Arthur did not emerge.

Merlin bit his lip, considering barging in to save him. Maybe she had held him hostage. Wouldn’t be the first time an old woman defeated the king.

His thoughts began to spiral. What if the woman really was a proper seer? What if she really did know about Arthur? Did that mean she would know about Merlin too?

Merlin could not think of a worse way for Arthur to find out he had magic than for a random witch to break it to him.

Then again, she probably wasn’t a druid. If she had been Merlin was sure she would have spoken into his mind and said ‘Emrys’. Plus, he didn’t see the druid mark on her wrist.

But one didn’t have to be a druid to have magic, or hate the Pendragons.

That had been proven again and again.

He gently patted the horse who was laying next to him and forced his mind to calm. The lady was probably telling him meaningless platitudes: that he’d be a great king, that he’s become rich, that he’d meet a beautiful princess and their first child would be a girl… all that kind of twaddle.

Besides, most of it was probably going to be true anyhow.

The horse nickered.

“I know girl,” Merlin said, falling backwards and allowing his eyes to close. “Arthur’s a right twat.”

“Should you be addressing your king that way?”

The voice of the old woman startled Merlin into sitting up. The woman was just emerging from her caravan, and right behind her Arthur was emerging too, looking calmer and more thoughtful.

“Arthur!” Merlin called, pulling on the horses’ reins to get them to stand up.

Without turning to say goodbye to the woman, or saying a word, Arthur took his reins and mounted, immediately riding off.

Merlin turned to the woman. “If you have harmed him or enchanted him, I will _kill_ you,” he whispered.

The woman looked straight into his eyes. “He knows,” she said.

Merlin stopped, and his face went slack in shock. Without offering an explanation, the woman turned and went inside her caravan.

“Merlin!” Arthur called from up ahead on the road.

Now suddenly torn between going after the woman and going after Arthur, Merlin cursed to himself under his breath. Making a snap decision, he mounted his horse and kicked it into a trot to catch up with the other man, who was riding at a steady walk and obviously still in thought.

“So,” Merlin started nervously, “what did she tell you?”

“Strange things, mostly,” Arthur said vaguely.

“Did she mention me?”

Arthur looked at him and scoffed. “Why would she mention _you_?” He asked derisively.

Internally, Merlin sighed in relief, despite the pang of pain that came with every confirmation that Arthur didn’t really care about him. “Well, what did she tell you?”

Arthur sighed. “Strange things. Fantastical things. A future called Albion where magic is free and a man called Emrys is my closest companion.”

“Is…that all?” Merlin probed.

“None of your business _Mer_ lin,” Arthur said bitingly. “If you were so desperate to know you should have asked her yourself.”

“Oh, sorry for being a caring friend, _Ar_ thur,” Merlin replied, just as snarky.

Arthur raised an eyebrow at him in a sidelong look.

“She said I would fall in love with someone who has protected me for years, and who is my closest friend and companion,” Arthur said, a bit too nonchalantly. “She said if Albion comes around we could be married, even as two men, and that we would be together in death.”

Merlin chuckled nervously. “A future where magic is free and you marry a bloke? You know she was taking bollocks, right?”

Arthur glanced over at Merlin, and there was something considering in his eye.

“I don’t know,” he said, “what’s so wrong with that future?”

He kicked his horse gently and nudged her into a trot, leaving Merlin behind, slightly slack-jawed.

Merlin twisted around in his saddle and looked back at where the horseless caravan had been, a hundred yards behind.

In its place was a simple oak tree, gnarled and huge with age.

**Author's Note:**

> Point out my mistakes and give feedback on what worked and what didn't! I genuinely want to improve my writing so I enjoy constructive criticism
> 
> xx Bella


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